Employee Engagement & Wellbeing Award

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Category Description

If you are an organisation that demonstrates an all-round commitment to employee engagement and wellbeing, then you are eligible to enter this award.

The award focuses on activities and practices developed to enhance employee engagement and well-being within and outside the workplace. These can for example: promote environmental sustainability, focus on skilled volunteering, and/or encourage a healthy work life balance. Specific areas might include staff energy efficiency projects, sustainable travel choices, improved environmental efficiency of facilities management, the promotion of equality, diversity & inclusion, behaviour change, and payroll giving. Activities will have been primarily delivered during 2021-23 but can include those started previously or those ongoing.

Judges will be rewarding businesses that have implemented innovative workplace activities that care for and protect employees, enhance the work environment for staff at all levels and recognise employees as valued contributors to the organisation.

In judging this award, the panel will specifically be looking for evidence of: the degree of innovation shown by the entrant in developing, delivering and engaging employees in the activities; how the organisation raised awareness to promote the offerings; and the extent to which the entry is part of an integrated scheme to improve employee relations.

We request a total word count of 1500 words +/-10% (excl. supporting docs). Any confidential data will be treated as such and only shared with the judging panel.

Criteria

Judges will be looking for evidence of the following points within the supplied application form (weighting percentages in brackets):

  1. How the activities were scoped and developed and how they set new standards for innovation and creativity; improved the working conditions and delivered work-life balance; (20%)
  2. Where measurable, how the activities have impacted on the business whether in terms of staff health; staff well-being; environmental improvements to the workplace or any other benefits; (20%)
  3. Awareness raising of the activities to promote them within the organisation and its engagement with staff, including the support from senior management; (15%)
  4. The measurement of diversity, inclusion and engagement: whether the schemes positively reached a broad range of employees from junior level to executives, and how the scheme fostered interaction and promoted empowerment on a long-term basis; (30%)
  5. Evidence of the scheme being part of a wider organisational effort to improve employee value by providing a healthier, more sustainable, connected and compassionate workplace. (15%)

PLEASE NOTE: The criteria above are different to the questions in the application form. You will need to follow the application questions; cross-referencing these with the criteria to ensure you’ve captured them within your application. The criteria are followed by the judges in order to compare all entries in each category like-for-like, Please ensure you register / login to AwardStage (Opens 1st Feb), select the category and export a PDF copy of the questions. Some category application questions differ. The application questions will be available four weeks before entries open, so if you wish to get them ahead of time please email us.

Are we eligible to enter?

Our awards programme is open to all organisations of any kind… companies large and small, charities, not-for-profits, social enterprises, NGOs, membership and accreditation organisations and government departments including local and county councils. We are all about rewarding sustainability practice – in all its forms. So if your organisation is making a difference, directly or indirectly to people and planet, you’re eligible.

We don’t just recognise businesses that are operating responsibly, or supporting / partnering with worthwhile causes. We also actively encourage entries from organisations that have been specifically set up or adapted to offer a product or service that tackles a social or environmental problem.

Our category descriptions and criteria have been written to guide entrants on what content should be detailed in their entries. However, we do not expect square pegs to fit in round holes… Some of your business activities or dedicated programmes might not fit entirely with any one specific category. In these cases, the descriptions and criteria are open to an element of interpretation and rest assured that our judges will still take into account entries that are strongly aligned with the overall context of the category.

If you have any concerns about the suitability of your entry, or would like to discuss your activities in more detail, we are here to help. Give Karen a call on 07813 718541 or email us.